2008-01-28T03:20:00.000-08:00

Orlando Jopling regularly conducts the English Chamber Orchestra both in the recording studio and on the concert platform, and has also conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Viva, the Schönbrunn Orchestra in Vienna, and Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, as well as many amateur orchestras in the UK.

He is Musical Director of the 140-year-old Royal Orchestral Society in London with whom he has conducted Verdi's Requiem, Beethoven's 9th Symphony and many other of the major orchestral works. In St John's, Smith Square next season he will conduct the Sea Symphony, Mahler's 4th Symphony, The Planets, Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky and concertos with Piers Lane and Kyril Zlotnikov.

After graduating from the National Opera Studio in London where he won the first Leonard Hancock scholarship, Orlando Jopling co-founded the modern opera company Tête à Tête and conducted over a dozen commissioned operas and the modern world première of Vivaldi's lost opera Orlando finto pazzo as well as Die Fledermaus and other standard repertoire. He worked with Diego Masson on the three Da Ponte operas at Dartington and went on to conduct Figaro for Savoy Opera, The Merry Widow for Carl Rosa, La Scala di Seta for Independent Opera, Albert Herring for British Youth Opera and Don Giovanni, Figaro and Idomeneo in Vienna with the Schönbrunn Orchestra. More recently he founded Stanley Hall Opera and developed it into an established annual festival, conducting Falstaff, Così fan tutte, Figaro, Don Pasquale and Cenerentola. Among other repertoire he has conducted La Traviata, Don Carlos, Cav & Pag, The Pearlfishers, Paul Bunyan, A Streetcar named Desire and most recently Don Giovanni in Bahrain.

Orlando Jopling has assisted André Previn, Sir Colin Davis, Paul McGrath and Wyn Davies at some of the major UK opera companies including Scottish Opera. He has accompanied a wide range of soloists including Sinéad O'Connor and Martha Wainwright. His music for TV has been heard on all the major UK channels, and he is artistic director of the chamber music festival Roman River Music in coastal Essex.

After reading music at Trinity College Cambridge, Orlando studied conducting at the Royal Academy in London. He also studied cello with the legendary William Pleeth, and has recorded all six Bach suites for solo cello. In the last three years he has given over 70 recitals and occasional concerto performances; however most of his cello playing is as a guest with some of the UK's finest orchestras, among them the Philharmonia and London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Orlando Jopling biog for programmes